Constitution

Upon entering the digital age, in which real and virtual space will
equally determine the social, cultural and scientific development of
mankind, the Free Software Foundation Europe has the long-term goal to
raise and work on the questions this will necessarily raise.

In this regard the direct function is the unselfish promotion of
Free Software as well as creating and propagating the awareness of the
related philosophical and social questions.

As its acknowledged sister organization, the FSFE will join
forces with the Free Software Foundation founded by Richard
M. Stallman in the United States of America. The latter, recognized
tax-exempt charitable organization in the USA, has been dedicating
itself since 1985 to the promotion and distribution of Free software
and in particular the GNU-System, a Unix-like operating system. This
system is mostly known by one of its variants, GNU/Linux, which since
1993 has been used successfully on many computers.

The term Free Software in the sense of the FSFE does not refer
to the price, but rather to the following four freedoms:

freedom: the freedom to use a program for any purpose

freedom: the freedom to study the program and adapt it to your
own needs.

freedom: the freedom to make copies for others.

freedom: the freedom to improve a program and make these
improvements available to others, so that the whole community
benefits.

This definition of Free Software goes back to the idea of freely
exchanging knowledge and ideas that can traditionally be found in
scientific fields. Like thoughts, software is non-tangible and
duplicable without loss. Passing feeds an evolutionary process,
advancing thoughts and software.

Only Free Software preserves the possibility to comprehend and build
upon scientific results. For scientists, it is the only kind of
software which corresponds to the ideals of a free
science. Accordingly, the promotion of free software is also a
promotion of science.

The distribution of information and the forming of an opinion are done
increasingly by digital media, and the trend is to foster the use of
those means for a direct citizen participation to
democracy. Therefore, a central task of the FSFE is to train
proficient citizens in these media, thereby promoting democracy.

Digital space (``Cyberspace''), with software as its medium and its
language has an enormous potential for the promotion of all mental and
cultural aspects of mankind. By making it commonly available and
opening up the medium, Free Software grants equal chances and
protection of privacy.

Coining the awareness for the problems related to the digital age in
all parts of society is long-term goal and a core aspect of the work
of the FSFE.

Therefore the FSFE will seek to increase the use of Free
Software in schools and universities in order to parallelize the
education in real space matters with the creation of understanding and
awareness of problems in virtual space.

Free Software guarantees traceable results and decision-making
processes in science and public life as well as the individual rights
to free development of personality and liberty of opinion. It is the
job of the FSFE to carry Free Software into all areas that touch
public life or ``informational human rights'' of citizens.

(1)
Purpose of the FSFE is the furthering and distribution of Free
Software in order to support the free exchange of information and
equal chances in accessing software as well as national education
according to the principles stated in the preamble.

(2)
The goals of the FSFE are namely to be achieved by:

the idealistic support of governmental and private organisations
in all aspects of the Free Software,

the cooperation and coordination of the national associations
which pursue the same goals

the support of programmers, realizing the charitable goals of the
FSFE by developing Free Software, through scholarships,

the distribution of the philosophical ideals of Free Software

the information and training of the public about the
possibilities and educational potential of Free Software,

the development and providing of Free Software for the public.

(3)
The FSFE pursues exclusively and directly publicly-spirited
purposes in the sense of the section ``tax-privileged purposes'' of
the tax code. The FSFE is working selflessly and does not
pursue self-economic goals.

(4)
Means of the FSFE may be used for the statutory purposes only.
No person may be favored by expenses alien to the goals of the FSFE
or disproportionally high. This applies in particular to
full-time members, that can receive an appropriate remuneration for
the performed work.

(1)
Any national or foreign natural or legal person may become member of
the FSFE. Natural persons must be 16 years old. Persons under
age do not have eligibility for election.

(2)
Condition for the acquisition of the membership is a written
application for membership to the President.

(3)
The General Assembly of the members decides on the application
for membership with three quarter majority of the delivered valid
votes; abstentions are therefore not counted. The President can grant
the application for membership passing; the application for membership
must then be confirmed by the next members assembly. In case of refusal
of the request no obligation exists to communicate the reasons to
the applicant.

(4)
Fellows elected according to become members
of the FSFE. Their membership terminates automatically at the end of
their term.

End of membership

(1)
Membership ends

with the death of the member with natural persons and/or its
liquidation in the case of legal persons;

by withdrawal from the association;

by exclusion from the association.

(2)
The withdrawal is made via written declaration vis-a-vis the
President. The declaration withdrawal must be signed by the competent
legal representative. The withdrawal can be declared at any time.

(3)
For important reasons or if the bond of trust between the members is
broken, a member can be excluded by decision of the President from the
association. Before deciding on the matter, the President must give
the member opportunity to state its position in writing. The decision
of the President is to be justified in writing and sent to the
member. The member can appeal the decision at the General Assembly of
the members. The appeal must be lodged within two weeks after
communication of the decision at the President. The
President has to call in a general assembly within three months of
punctual insertion of the appointment, which can support the decision
of the President with a majority of three quarters of the remaining
members. Until the final decision about the exclusion, the member
remains suspended of all obligations and all rights.

Membership Fees, Remuneration

(1)
The association may collect annual financial dues from its
members. Members may pay their dues
either in the form of a financial contribution, or
through voluntary work. The amount of such dues as well as their due dates
and collection and establishment procedures are decided upon
by the General Assembly.

(2)
The president, the vice president, the financial officer, as well as other organs of the association,
which have been assigned certain duties through the constitution
of the association or through a decision of the General Assembly,
may receive adequate remuneration and expense reimbursements for
their services performed for the association. The appropriateness
of such remuneration is determined by the overall financial
situation of the association and by the specific tasks that need
to be performed through the respective organ. Remuneration may not
exceed the usual remuneration paid for freelance engagements for
similar services rendered to comparable, non tax-exempt
organisations, businesses, or governmental offices (for example
in the IT industry). The amounts for remuneration for such organs
are decided upon by the General Assembly.

(3)
Members and non-members can receive remuneration for activities
performed in order to further constitutional purposes of the
association (for example project work) if such activities are
in line with the constitutional goals and the remuneration is
appropriate. Appropriateness of such remuneration is defined as
amounts not exceeding usual remuneration for comparable freelance
work performed for other non tax-exempt organisations, businesses,
or governmental offices (for example in the IT industry). The
exact terms for remuneration for members and non-members, the
actual amounts as well as all other conditions will be decided
upon through the General Assembly or its defined representative.

Fellowship seats

Two seats in the General Assembly are up for election among Fellows of
the FSFE, with a Fellow being defined in [ref]
(2.[ref]).

(1)
Fellowship seats in the General Assembly must be held by natural
persons, cannot be inherited and enjoy all rights and responsibilities
of regular members of the General Assembly.

(2) Fellowships seats differ from regular seats in the following ways:

Each seat is subject to general election among all orderly Fellows of the FSFE;

Elections for seats shall be held yearly in rotation;

The term for each seat is two years;

An orderly Fellow is a natural person who

is registered to the Fellowship programme with correct information;

made their annual Fellowship contribution;

maintains a current email address in the Fellowship forwarding.

All orderly Fellows who have been subscribed to the Fellowship
programme for more than one year are elegible for election.

The term begins with confirmation of the election results by the Fellowship coordinator.

(3)
The following procedure applies for all elections of the Fellowship
and is done in accordance with the Schulze method for voting:

The election is called and run by the Fellowship coordinator,
who is appointed by the General Assembly;

Elections are called by signed email to the Fellows three months
before the election date;

All orderly Fellows are entitled to vote. The
Fellowship coordinator defines the point in time
at which the list of orderly Fellows is
determined.

Candidates are all Fellows elegible for election who have
informed the Fellowship coordinator of their intention to stand for
office at least two months before the election date;

Each Fellow participating in the election shall submit a ballot
ranking all Candidates.

Not all Candidates need to be ranked. Ranked Candidates are
considered preferred to all unranked Candidates. Voters may rank
Candiates equally. Unranked Candidates are considered to be ranked
equally with one another.

From the list of Candiates, a list of pairwise defeats are generated:

Given two Candidates A and B, V(A,B) is the number of voters
who prefer Candidate A over Candidate B.

Candidate A defeats Candidate B, if V(A,B) is strictly greater
than V(B,A).

From the list of pairwise defeats, a set of transitive defeats
are generated:

Candidate A transitively defeats Candidate C if A defeats C or
if there is some other Candidate B where A defeats B AND B
transitively defeats C.

A Schwartz set is constructed from the set of transitive defeats:

Candidate A is in the Schwartz set if for all Candiates B,
either A transitively defeats B, or B does not transitively defeat
A.

If there are defeats between Candidates in the Schwartz set, we
drop the weakest such defeats from the list of pairwise defeats, and
return to step 6.

A defeat (A,X) is weaker than a defeat (B,Y) if V(A,X) is less
than V(B,Y). Also, (A,X) is weaker than (B,Y) if V(A,X) is equal
to V(B,Y) and V(X,A) is greater than V(Y,B).

A weakest defeat is a defeat that has no other defeat weaker
than it. There may be more than one such defeat.

If there are no defeats within the Schwartz set, then the winner
is chosen from the Candiates in the Schwartz set. If there is only
one such Candidate, (s)he is the winner. If there are multiple
Candidates, the winner is randomly chosen by lot.

(1)
The Free Software Foundation Europe forms a European federation
structure and is divided into national associations. Those are
associations with own juridical personality after the law on societies
of the European State for its area the association are active. All
members of the national associations must also be members of the FSFE.

(2)
In order to preserve the uniformity, the national associations have to
fulfill minimum requirements determined by the General Assembly, which
are written down in a constitution-template for national
associations. This applies with the exception of requirements that are
inadmissible according to the laws of the state in which the national
association is to be created. In this case the constitution is to be
modified so it reflects the intentions of the constitution-template
most closely. The constitution requires the acceptance by the
Executive Council before the national association becomes part of the
FSFE.

(3)
The finances of the national associations are determined by the
budgeting in accordance with [ref] of this statute.

(4)
The national associations can conclude contracts in their own name for
the fulfillment of local tasks, if the means are present for the
fulfilment of these contracts. They can in no case enter obligations
for the FSFE.

(5)
The national associations can only enter into negotiations for issues
that are focussed around their region and only with public authorities
and organisations responsible for their respective areas.

(6)
The national associations are entitled and obliged to bear their own
name trough which the affiliation with the Free Software Foundation
Europe is expressed. This has to be done by adding the denomination
``Chapter'' with the name of the state in English to ``Free Software
Foundation Europe'' (``FSFE''). Additionally they can bear the name in
the national language.

(7)
The Executive Council is entitled to revoke the right for the national
association to use the name ''FSFE'' if the national association
violates this constitution or its own constitution. The national
association can appeal the decision at the General Assembly of the
members. The appeal must be lodged within two weeks after
communication of the decision at the Executive Council. The Executive
Council has to call in a General Assembly within three months of
punctual insertion of the appointment, which can remedy or overrule
the decision of the Executive Council with a majority of three
quarters of the remaining members.

The Free Software Foundation Europe forms a European federation. Organs of the FSFE are:

the General Assembly.

the President;

the Vice-President;

the Financial Officer;

the Executive Director;

the Executive Council;

The General Assembly

(1)
In the General Assembly, each member that is a natural person, has a
voice. For the practice of the right to vote another member can be
authorized by written message to the President. The authorisation is
to be given for each General Assembly separately. A member cannot
practise the right to vote for more than one third of all members.

(2)
The General Assembly has exclusive jurisdiction for the following
affairs:

Budgeting;

Defining the discretionary limit for executive financial
decisions by the Executive Director;

Agenda-setting and determination of priorities for the
President, Vice-President and Executive Director;

Review the annual report of the President, Vice-President,
Executive Director, and Financial Officer;

Exoneration of the organs;

Choice and recall of the President, the Vice-President, the
Financial Officer, and the Executive Director.

(3)
Members of the General Assembly are liable to protect the confidential
and sensitive information of the FSFE. This obligation survives the
termination of membership.

(4)
Members of the General Assembly are not liable vis-a-vis the
association for unintentional oversight.

The convening of the General Assembly

(1)
The orderly General Assembly is to take place at
least once per calendar year. It is called up in writing by the
President under adherence to one period of six weeks under indication
of the agenda. The period begins with the day following the sending of the
invitation letter. The invitation letter is to be considered delivered
to the member, if it is addressed to the last address or e-mail
address given by the member in writing. With written agreement of
three quarters of the members, the invitation period can be shortened
to three weeks.

(2)
The agenda is determined by the President. Each member can request a
supplement of the agenda in writing to the President until
at the latest one week before a General Assembly. The President has to
announce the supplement at the beginning of the General
Assembly. About applications for supplement of the agenda, which are
made at the General Assembly, are decided by the General Assembly.

The President can call up an extraordinary General Assembly at any
time. It must be called up, if at least a quarter of all members
require it in writing under indication of the purpose and reasons to
the President. To the extraordinary meeting of the members
the [ref], [ref] and [ref] apply accordingly.

Adoption of resolutions of the General Assembly

(1)
The General Assembly is led by the President, at his
indespensability by the Vice-President and at the indispensability of
the latter by the Financial Officer.

(2)
The type of election is determined by the assembly director. The
election must be carried out in writing, if a third of the members
present in person with the election requests this.

(3)
The General Assembly is not public.

(4)
The General Assembly is resolutionable, if it was duly called up and
at least one third of all members is present or represented by
members present. In the case of decision inability, the President
is obliged to call up a second General Assembly with the
same agenda within four weeks; this General Assembly will
resolutionable without consideration of the members present. This is
to be referred to in the invitation.

(5)
Unless stated otherwise in the statute, the General Assembly passes
decisions with simple majority of the delivered valid voices;
abstentions are therefore left out of the consideration. Changes of
the statute require a majority of three quarters of the delivered
valid voices; abstentions are not counted.
Dissolution of the FSFE requires four fifths of
the voices of all members of the association. Changing the purpose of the FSFE can
only be decided with unanimous agreement of all members. Members not present
at the General Assembly can submit their agreement in writing to the
president within one month.

(6)
In the case of elections it is elected who received more than half of
the delivered valid voices. If nobody received more than half of the
delivered valid voices, a ballot takes place between the candidates
who received most voices. The person who receives the most votes in
this ballot is elected. In the case of equal number of votes once a
new choice is necessary; if the mood equality continues to exist, the
lot decides.

(7)
Over decisions of the General Assembly, a protocol is to be led, that
is to be signed by the recording clerk and the assembly director. It
is to contain the following ascertainments: Place and time of the
assembly, the person of the assembly director and the recording clerk,
the number of members present, the agenda, the individual election
results and the type of the election. For amendments of the statute
the exact wording is to be given.

(1)
The President is elected by the General Assembly of the members for
the duration of two years, from the election on. Beyond these two
years the President continues to be in office up to the election
of a new President.

(2)
Electable are only members of the FSFE. With the end of membership in
the association, the office of the President also ends.

(3)
If the President resigns prematurely or otherwise becomes permanently
indispensable, the Vice-President automatically succeeds as the new
President up to the election of a new President within the regular
term.

(4)
The President is responsible for all affairs the FSFE, as far as they
are not transferred to another organ of the FSFE by statute. The
President has in particular the following tasks:

Coordination of the substantial and political decision finding of the General Assembly;

Convening and preparation of the General Assembly of the members as well as list the agenda;

Creation of the annual report;

Adoption of resolutions over the admission and the exclusion of members;

(1)
The Vice-President supports and advises the President in all tasks.

(2)
The Vice-President represents the President in the following cases:

Departure of the President;

Passing indispensability of the President;

Written delegation of tasks by the President.

(3)
The President is indispensable if he communicates this in written form
to the Vice-President. The Vice-President takes care of all matters as
long and to the extent they were transferred to him in writing by the
President. The President is considered indispensable if he is not
attainable or cannot exercise his office more than seven days because
of illness.

(4)
The Vice-President is elected by the General Assembly for the duration
of two years, from the election on. Beyond these two years the
Vice-President continues to be in office up to the election of a new
Vice-President.

(5)
Only members of the FSFE can be elected for Vice-President. With the
end of membership in the association, the office of the Vice-President
also ends.

(6)
If the Vice-President resigns prematurely or otherwise becomes
permanently indispensable, the President can appoint a successor for
the remaining term of office.

(7)
The Vice-President is not liable vis-a-vis the association for
unintentional oversight.

(1)
The Financial Officer acts as the financial supervisor on behalf of
FSFE's General Assembly. He monitors the financial management and
decisions by the Executive Director and reports to the General
Assembly.

(2)
The Financial Officer is responsible to advise the Executive Council
in the event of changes to the budget between convenings of the
General Assembly.

(3)
The Financial Officer in particular must pay attention that

possible profits are used only for the statutory purposes
and that the FSFE is working selflessly.

no member may get shares of the profits or other
allowances from the means of the FSFE or its local
associations. This also applies to separating members.

funds of the FSFE can only partially be used for
other tax-exempt charitable organizations and only if these
organizations use them for constitutional goals.

administrative costs, which are alien to the purpose of the
FSFE may not be granted. Same applies to disproportionately high
payments.

(4)
The Financial Officer is elected by the General Assembly for the
duration of two years, from election on. Beyond those two years he
remains in office up to the election of the new Financial Officer.

(5)
Only members of the FSFE can be selected for Financial Officer. With
the end of membership in the association, the office of the
Financial Officer also ends.

(6)
If the Financial Officer resigns prematurely or otherwise
becomes permanently indispensable, the President can select a
successor for the remaining term of office.

(7)
The Financial Officer is not liable vis-a-vis the association
for unintentional oversight.

(1)
The Executive Director coordinates the day-to-day activities of the
association according to the budgets and priortities set by the
General Assembly and in coordination with the President and
Vice-President of the association.

(2)
The Executive Director will be appointed by the General Assembly on
the basis of a written contract which is to be signed by the President
on behalf of the association.

(3)
The Executive Director remains in office until the contract ends or is
terminated by the General Assembly or the President acting
on its behalf.

(4)
The Executive Director should not be a member of the association, but
joining or leaving the association has no effect on the position of
Executive Director.

(5)
If the Executive Director quits prematurely or otherwise becomes
permanently indispensable, the President can select a successor.

(6)
The Executive Director is responsible for administrative management
of the organisation, including

coordination and supervision of the employees;

representation of the organisation on contractual matters;

representation of the organisation towards financial institutions;

representation of the organisation on matters of taxation;

coordination of the FSFE administrative office;

coordination of the Executive Council of FSFE;

coordination of the Executive Team of FSFE, consisting of employees and volunteers;

creating the annual executive report for the annual General Assembly.

(7)
The Executive Director leads the finances according to the budget and
priorities determined by the General Assembly. The budgeting and
priorities must give that

possible profits are used only for the statutory purposes
and that the FSFE is working selflessly.

no member may get shares of the profits or other
allowances from the means of the FSFE or its local
associations. This also applies to separating members.

funds of the FSFE can only partially be used for
other tax-exempt charitable organizations and only if these
organizations use them for constitutional goals.

administrative costs, which are alien to the purpose of the
FSFE may not be granted. Same applies to disproportionately high
payments.

(8)
Changes to the budgeting by the Executive Director between convenings
of the General Assembly require approval by the Executive Council.

(9)
Expenses for which the total expense exceeds the discretionary limit
defined by the General Assembly in its budgeting cannot be authorised
by the Executive Director and require approval of the Executive
Council.

(10)
The Executive Director is not liable vis-a-vis the association
for unintentional oversight.

(11)
For important reasons or if the bond of trust with the Executive
Director is broken, the Executive Director can be suspended of all
rights and obligations by decision of the President. The decision of
the President is to be justified in writing and sent to the Executive
Director. The Executive Director can appeal the decision at the
General Assembly of the members. The appeal must be lodged within two
weeks after communication of the decision at the President. The
President has to call in a General Assembly within three months of
punctual insertion of the appeal, which can support the decision of
the President with a single majority. Until the final
decision the Executive Director remains suspended of all obligations
and all rights.

(1)
The dissolution of the FSFE can only be decided in a General
Assembly by the majority in accordance to [ref].

(2)
If the General Assembly decides nothing else, the President
is the liquidator entitled to act as substitute.

(3)
After liquidation or loss of the tax-privileged purposes, available
funds go to a legal entity of the public right or another
tax-privileged association, which has to use it directly and
exclusively for charitable purposes in the sense of this
constitution. Resolutions over the future use of the funds may be
executed only after consent of the responsible tax office.

(4)
The preceding regulations apply accordingly, if the FSFE is
dissolved for another reason or loses its legal capacity.